Articles that take you quickly to the major issues on Diet and Fitness, Personal Relationships, Small Business, Financing a Business, and Management.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

How to Maintain Good Health Naturally

To maintain good health naturally depends primarily on healthy cells. Cells are like bricks in a wall. Build a wall with weak bricks and it will fall. In the same way, poorly nourished cells will build unhealthy muscles and internal organs. The key is to properly nourish your cells with a balanced diet.

By a balanced diet, I mean a diet that contains carbohydrate, protein, essential fats, vitamins, mineral salts and fiber; obtained from fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, lean meat, poultry and low fat dairy products. When eaten in small to moderate portions these provide the body with the essential nutrients it needs to be healthy and strong.

Carbohydrates converted to glucose is your body's main source of energy. Proteins provide the amino acids for building your muscle and internal organs. Essential fats help your body absorb nutrients, as well as nerves transmission, not forgetting the important roles of vitamins, mineral salts and fiber.

When you look at your muscle, your heart or brain tissue under a microscope, you will see billions of cells packed together to form them. Each cell functions as a separate unit. It has receptors to take in nutrients, oxygen and water; process them for its use, and dispose of the waste, as carbon dioxide into the blood stream.

Physically, we are nothing more than trillions of life cells packed together. When these cells are properly nourished and functioning well, your body performs at its best. When they are poorly nourished they do not function well, and you become sick. The trick is to keep your cells happy and they will keep you away from the doctor.

The starting point for maintaining good health naturally is to eat a balanced diet containing the essential nutrients mentioned above. Juices from the pancreas, liver and small intestine dissolve the food you eat into semi-liquid form to allow the nutrients to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into your blood.

The nutrient-rich blood goes through the liver where all harmful substances are removed. It continues through the lungs where carbon dioxide (waste from cells) are removed, and oxygen is added from the air you breath. Reaching your heart, the nutrient and oxygen-rich blood is pumped on its way to the trillions of cells in your body; with each cell receiving sufficient nutrients and oxygen to repair and maintain itself.

With a balanced diet you will have a healthy body able to withstand the physical exercise you need to do to improve your blood circulation, improve oxygen levels in your blood, strengthen your heart muscle, increase energy levels, lower blood pressure, strengthen your bones, reduce body fat, improve muscle tone and strength, reduce stress and anxiety, and help you get a good night sleep.

Research has also shown that physical exercise increases the levels of the brain chemicals called norepinephrine and dopamine that can boost your mood, and help you to retain memories of facts and events. To get all these health benefits you don't need to spend a lot of money, or do intensive physical exercises. Aerobic exercises like brisk walking and swimming, or jogging and running if you are able to do so, will do. Your cells are all you got. They make you who you are. When you feed them with junk foods and do no physical exercise, they will give you an overweight body prone to diseases. Feed them with a balanced diet and do regular physical exercise, and they will give you a well toned and healthy body that performs at its best.